Is DateTimeOffset.UtcNow.DateTime equivalent to DateTime.UtcNow?

c# .net datetime type-conversion datetimeoffset
Andrei Rînea picture Andrei Rînea · Nov 11, 2015 · Viewed 7.1k times · Source

I need to upgrade some piece of code from statically calling DateTime.UtcNow to calling a time provider service which returns, basically, DateTimeOffset.UtcNow. To further convert this DateTimeOffset instance to DateTime, there is the DateTime property. Alternatively, it seems that there is an implicit conversion from DateTimeOffset to DateTime.

I'm a bit concerned that there might be some edge cases that I can't see right now where these two would not be equivalent. Are there?

Answer

Mike Zboray picture Mike Zboray · Nov 11, 2015

If you look at the value of DateTimeOffset.UtcNow.DateTime.Kind you will see the it is Unspecified. Unspecified kinds are treated as local times by the framework. The kind of DateTime.UtcNow is Utc, so there will be differences when timezone conversions are applied to and from the local timezone.

The work around is to use the DateTimeOffset.UtcNow.UtcDateTime which has the Utc kind specified.

Related questions

String was not recognized as a valid DateTime " format dd/MM/yyyy"

I am trying to convert my string formatted value to date type with format dd/MM/yyyy. this.Text="22/11/2009"; DateTime date = DateTime.Parse(this.Text); What is the problem ? It has a second override which asks for IFormatProvider. What is …

Read More
In C#, how do I calculate someone's age based on a DateTime type birthday?

Given a DateTime representing a person's birthday, how do I calculate their age in years?

Read More
Convert UTC/GMT time to local time

We are developing a C# application for a web-service client. This will run on Windows XP PC's. One of the fields returned by the web service is a DateTime field. The server returns a field in GMT format i.e. …

Read More